


As The World Should Salvage

by neuronary



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Protective Azula (Avatar), Salvage, as things should be/salvage crossover, muffinlance cinematic universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: Hakoda skimmed the letter, then blinked and read it closer.– Fire Lord tragically passed away tragically a few days ago. Her Majesty, Fire Lord Azula is interested in renegotiating for Prince Zuko’s safe return, if he remains with you and your crew –He caught a glance of Zuko’s scroll. It had two large words on it.Dum-Dum.---Or, Azula is two years older than Zuko, Zuko is being held hostage on a water tribe ship, and Mai and Ty Lee are there for spice. (Insp. by MuffinLance's Salvage and As The World Should Be)
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Ozai (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 965





	As The World Should Salvage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).



> i posted this on tumblr forever ago. finally getting around to putting it up here. hope you enjoy.
> 
> (it will make a lot more sense if you've read salvage and as the world should be.)

Azula read through Ty Lee’s letter once, twice, and set it on fire. This was mainly for her own safety, but she couldn’t deny the catharsis it brought her. Of course Zuko had been captured by ‘lovely’ Water Tribe pirates. What else was he going to do? Catch the avatar? Stay in the Earth Kingdom where he probably wouldn’t die? Make a thought-out decision for once in his stupid-worthless-precious life?

Father was going to have him killed, and Mai and Ty Lee couldn’t get him out or they would have done it already, and Azula couldn’t rescue him because she had responsibilities, and she was going to fail and it had been the one thing Mother had thought she could actually succeed at and then she would completely and utterly-

Unless.

Azula knew what she had to do to keep Zuko safe.

(She’d known for years.)

She couldn’t betray her country.

(She could.)

She shouldn’t act so dishonourably.

(Where was the honour in trying to have your own child - a child that didn’t even _realise_ \- killed?)

It wouldn’t be easy.

(It was. A knife stolen from the kitchens and one of Mother’s old theatre masks because it looked _cool_ and Mother had been too cowardly so now Azula had to do it.)

—

Ty Lee held up an arm for the Enemy Bird with a wide grin.

Everyone on deck - Fire Nation _children_ excluded - tensed.

“Don’t worry,” she said, with her usual cheeriness, “it’s for me.”

That only made things more worrying. Ty Lee remained oblivious as she uncapped the small wooden tube and tugged out three scrolls, tied in pink, red, and blue ribbon. The pink ribbon came off first and the two girls tilted their heads together to read it. After a moment, the scroll with the red ribbon was handed off to Zuko and they turned to Hakoda.

“This one’s for you!” Ty Lee handed him the final scroll. “I imagine it must be important, blue ribbon is hard to come by in the homeland.” She smiled, like usual, but this one was slightly pinched.

Nervous, Hakoda realised, and wondered if he should be too. He didn’t get to ask, as Ty Lee retreated to the little corner of the deck she and Mai had claimed. Mai kept her eyes on him as he unrolled his letter, but Ty Lee seemed to be re-reading their letter.

He skimmed the letter, then blinked and read it closer.

_– Fire Lord tragically passed away tragically a few days ago. Her Majesty, Fire Lord Azula is interested in renegotiating for Prince Zuko’s safe return, if he remains with you and your crew –_

“Tui and La,” he muttered.

He caught a glance of Zuko’s scroll. It had two large words on it.

_Dum-Dum._

—

“You have an aunt?” The chief asked him, trying to be friendly. Probably

“No,” Zuko replied, because he couldn’t see the harm, “but I have a sister! Azula.”

The chief nodded. “Older than you?”

Zuko nodded back, smiling because he was now pretty sure that this was a Good Conversation, like Pai Sho with Azula or Uncle. The chief seemed to be relieved. “She’s sixteen,” he explained, and that was the wrong this to say, because the chief was frowning and frowning was bad and Zuko didn’t know why he was upset but he was.

“Zuko,” Mai materialised at his side, “come on, Ty Lee needs your help with her hair.”

Zuko mouthed ‘thank you’ between shaky breaths as he crossed the deck to help Panuk and Toklo with Ty Lee’s hair.

“Zuko, finally,” she said. “These two are trying their best, but they don’t do a lot of the rope work on this ship, apparently.”

Panuk looked faintly embarrassed. Toklo just looked grumpy, but he was harmless.

“You can practice on my hair after, if you want,” Zuko offered, midway through a clumsy demonstration. “Ty Lee will probably explain better than me, and she knows how to do loads of different kinds.”

—

Azula went over the numbers again, just in case. They were all correct and in order. Budgets were fast becoming her favourite part of governing. So simple.

Unfortunately, their simplicity meant they were usually finished rather quickly. Azula was left with nothing left to do but go to bed in her new quarters. Father’s old quarters.

(The sheets had been replaced but the bloodstains were still there.)

Azula swallowed past the lump in her throat and flicked back to the first page of the budget report. You could never be too careful.

—

Hakoda glanced at the scroll poking out from beneath Mai’s sleeve. He was curious by nature, and longed to know what the new Fire Lord had written to her brother’s keepers.

“We haven’t told him,” Mai said, quietly enough that only Hakoda could hear, despite Aake only being a few feet away, sanding the rails. “Azula will. It’s her duty.” _You won’t either_ , was the silent threat.

Hakoda had seen her target practice, the outline of her friend and the prince studded into main mast with terrifying precision and not a speck of blood on either of them. He nodded.

“You think the negotiations will go well, then?”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Either way, Zuko will go home.”

Hakoda thought about the letters he’d received from both Fire Lords. A father who’d asked for his son’s head and a sixteen-year-old girl who had had to ask if her little brother was still alive. He thought about Sokka and the fierce protectiveness he held for Katara.

Yes. The Prince would be going home.

\---

The first thing Hakoda noticed about Zuko’s older sister was that she looked exhausted. Although, he hadn’t slept well in a few days preparing the fleet for their rendezvous, so maybe that was part of the job description. The second thing he noticed was the dawning look of understanding and abject horror on the young prince’s face. Behind him, Mai’s eyebrows pinched. Hakoda didn’t have Ty Lee close enough to translate, but he was relatively certain a normal person would be grimacing.

Almost the moment his feet hit the metal - how could metal float? Hakoda hated these people - Zuko sank to his knees and bowed. His sister’s face did not change as he babbled out apologies that barely made sense to anyone but him and, perhaps, the new Fire Lord.

“Get up, Prince Zuko,” she snapped after a moment. “Come here, let me see you properly.”

Zuko stumbled forward, trying and failing to hide his tears. His sister looked him up and down, then patted his shoulders. Her face was still the same grim neutral it had been when they’d first anchored.

“Toklo, no!” Hakoda turned in time to see Panuk lose his grip on their youngest crewman’s arm as he dashed forward, sprinting across the deck - with loud, echoing clangs because _the Fire Nation could make metal float_ \- to his brother’s open arms. How two siblings reuniting after uncertain times _should_ behave.

Everyone was perfectly silent, all eyes but six on the Fire Lord.

She raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll take that as satisfaction that your men have been well cared for?”

Another beat of silence.

Ty Lee giggled, and Hakoda realised that had been a joke. Well, then.

It was easier, after that, to deal with everything. Zuko guided him through the proper greetings and bows, hissing “thirty-five degrees” out of the corner of his mouth like it was supposed to mean something to Hakoda. The Fire Lord seemed to accept his attempt with a bemused smile, like he was an endearing child trying to make friends with a disaffected teenager. Her own clumsy attempt at respecting their traditions was masked by a confidence she had to be faking, but her grip on his fore-arm was strong and her nod determined.

“Escort Prince Zuko to my quarters,” the Fire Lord said to her guards. Then to her brother, quieter and angrier, “Don’t touch any of the papers, you’ll mess something up.”

Hakoda thought of ‘don’t touch my stuff’s from his own children and tried not to miss them too much. He worried, for a moment, that the prince would be no safer with his sister than his father from her tone of voice and hard look. Then he remembered _two volcanoes_ , and sympathised.

—

When Azula finally got the time to go and shake some sense into her brother, she was almost too tired, despite the fact she’d been sleeping better at sea. Zuko looked pale-faced and tense when she walked in, legs drawn up to his chest like he was an infant still.

(It had been simpler when he was.)

“Get your shoes off my bed, you little heathen,” Azula said, instead of ‘are you okay’ because she was still angry.

(She wasn’t.)

“What happened to Dad?”

Azula sighed. She’d been hoping he’d leave off on that until they got back home. “He was assassinated.” Zuko let out a sob and she grimaced. She always had been terrible with Zuko’s feelings. “Don’t worry, I used this trip as an opportunity to clean up court and make sure it’ll be safe when you get home.”

Zuko did not find this as reassuring as he should have. Azula sat down primly next to him and patted his shoulder. She had meant to leave it at that but it somehow led to Zuko practically in her lab, shaking with his uncontrolled despair.

… Azula chalked it up to his experience with the water tribe. He couldn’t be that upset about their father.

(Except. She was.)

(It was _fine_.)

“Look, it’ll all be fine,” she said. Lying to her brother to keep him happy had become second nature a long time ago.

(”Mother had to go away, Zuko.”)

(”I’m sure she misses you just as much as you miss her.”)

(”Father’s just busy, why don’t you show _me_ your new katas?”)

There was a knock at the door and Zuko had the good grace to dry his eyes and move away before Ty Lee and Mai swept in, bearing the gift of dinner.

“Thank you,” Azula said, grabbing the fullest plate from her friend and collapsing into her desk chair. “Did they feed you alright?”

“Eventually,” Mai replied, and Azula paused between mouthfuls. “They all eat from the same plates, and we didn’t know. It was awkward, to say the least.”

Azula hummed and swallowed. “Well, that’s good to know. If we’re going to draw up a peace treaty we really should adapt to some of their customs. It’s only polite.” She made a face. “Even if it sounds a little… unhygienic.”

“I never got food poisoning or anything,” Zuko pointed out.

“You wouldn’t have noticed the difference,” Azula snipped.

—

The peace process was just as boring as the politics Mai had grown up with in the Caldera. Zuko being shifty and nervous was pretty par for the course, too. As was him heading straight for Azula at the end of a meeting.

Of course, Azula hadn’t been Fire Lord then.

“Azula?”

A glare.

“Sorry, Fire Lord Azula.” Zuko bowed quickly. “Could… can we talk? Please?”

Azula had always been an excellent actor, and ruthless to boot. What a wonderful politician. Mai watched as she put on the perfect show, face shifting into mildly frustrated apology.

“I’m very sorry, Minister, I’m certain this must be important. Could you give us a moment?”

“I think we need to end the war.”

Mai glanced over her shoulder to make sure the Minister was out of earshot. She couldn’t be sure, in the deafening silence that followed, but he didn’t falter in his steps as he walked away.

Azula’s frustration had vanished, replaced by the cold, stony mask that she used in the war rooms. Mai watched and wondered.

Azula loved her brother, more than anything in the world. Evidently, more than she had loved her father - Mai wasn’t stupid, and Azula’s nightmares had _changed_.

Azula loved Zuko with everything she’d ever had to give, and Zuko loved her back just as much, so Mai chalked his mistake up to stupidity - a lack of understanding about the position he was putting her in. He’d be imprisoned, if he was lucky, banished if not. Maybe handed Omashu on a silver platter, if Azula could swing it with the right people.

Azula was a new Fire Lord, and there was every chance that Minister had heard Zuko’s words.

Zuko was watching his sister, afraid of her suddenly, and Mai knew they both saw only her father in that moment.

Until it ended, and Azula’s face went slack.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated and that. have a nice day or whatever. peace.


End file.
